We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sabiti Rita. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sabiti below.

Sabiti, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

“You should sell your hot sauces, they are too delicious”

The idea of creating magnolia flavors came during a family meal. My older brother ate and suddenly said: “you should sell your chili sauces, they are too good”. The idea germinated in my mind and the next day I started researching the world of chilli, hot sauces in Canada and around the world.

After having a clearer idea of this sector, I decided to sell my hot sauces to my entourage, my friends, colleagues etc… and results, everyone liked. The next step was to do my certifications in order to be in order and to acquire my first pots, material.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I don’t come from the restaurant business at all, let alone the chilli business. I have a background in marketing, communication and sales. The world of chili pepper was unknown to me. The device of magnolia flavors is to make our customers travel through their taste buds. It is this reconnecting with African flavors, African recipes without moving to Africa. It is the combination of African recipes with French know-how.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I studied marketing and worked more than a decade in finance. So nothing predicted that I would work in the food industry. I had to change my way of thinking, reprogram it and get involved in this new adventure. It is never easy to start from scratch and even more in an unknown sector. It took a lot of resilience, strength and patience. It was the most beautiful experience that included fear, exitation and the desire to prove oneself

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I think that to keep in touch and retain customers, you have to be real and have a real, transparent relationship with them. sell them the product or service they expect. Stay in touch (via calls, emails, text) and be accessible as well. In addition, do not be afraid to restart them via the systems mentioned above. I would add not to neglect the older ones because we may tend to want to seduce new customers but it is also important to continue to seduce old customers. After there are several ways to retain them via discounts, promotional offers, loyalty cards, prices, references etc….

Contact Info:

• Website: www.saveursmagnolia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saveursmagnolias?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR32i3Qp_LWxzERyf5vnxyMDpmMxwBA0455ZcWVEoi-Y5IyoEPKSCwehO-8
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083192031460

Image Credits
the personal picture: crédits: Dulcie Abari the others pictures: Rita Sabiti